Even if God Did Exist....

"What would it take to make you believe in God?" a friend asked.

"Evidence," I said.

But indeed it's difficult to say what evidence would qualify as genuine proof. More importantly, if such evidence existed, does that obligate us to follow that God?

Let's say that, to prove God's existence to me, one of the faithful prayed over an amputee and, without any plausible scientific explanation, the amputee's lost limb grew back before my very eyes. Should my knee bend and tongue now confess that Jesus Christ is lord? If anything, proof of God's existence leaves us with as many unanswered questions as we had before.

Like why does God allow evil?

Did you know that Haiti is still not rebuilt? It's been almost a year and the earthquake that killed a quarter of a million people and left over a million homeless has all but vanished from mainstream news. But Haiti is not rebuilt, and Haitians are still in desperate need of even the most basic supplies, like clean water.

The death of so many innocent people should bring the most stolid and stoic among us to tears. It should have us questioning God's goodness. Yet televangelist Pat Robertson had claimed that the Haitian earthquake was the consequence of the Haitian people's pact with the devil. Another Christian told me that the Haitians who died were not innocent because it is a country given to voodoo and idolatry.

So, the Haitians had it coming for their infidelity? Is this the work of a loving God? Kowtowing to the vain and arbitrary whims of a petty tyrant is not my idea of morality, even if such a God had the power to punish me eternally for my apostacy. Or perhaps God is benevolent, but he simply does not have the power to intervene in human affairs. In either case, atheism is justified. The loving God would not allow harm to befall us if he can prevent it, which apparently he can't, and the vengeful God does not deserve the groveling he demands of us.

So, by all means, show me the proof that God exists. What does that prove?